Modulation of Magnetism and Optical Properties of Hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) Nanorods Fabricated via Thermal Conversion of Hydrothermally Synthesized Akaganeite (β-FeOOH)

Abstract

A simple hydrothermal approach was used to effectively synthesize high-quality single crystal hematite (α-Fe2O3) nanorods with an average diameter of ~59.40 nm. Rietveld refinement analysis was used to examine the crystal structure and phase purity of hematite that displayed a hexagonal crystal structure with a single phase in the R-3c space group. Unit cell and other reliability parameters were also determined using Rietveld refinement. In addition, magnetic measurements using a vibrating sample magnetometer have been conducted at room temperature from which magnetic hysteresis loops reveal that the material is weakly ferromagnetic with lowered magnetic parameter values. In the synthesized sample, both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic contributions were observed and separated by applying a theoretical modification of the measured M-H loop.

Morphologically Tunable Fabrication of Hematite Nanostructures for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Performance

“…6, each peak may be attributed to pure hematite. 31 The Raman peaks at 224 and 497 are attributed to Fe-O Stretching vibrations that correspond to A 1g modes, whereas the peaks at 294, 407, and 612 are associated with Hematite E g modes. Furthermore, the substantial microstrain in the nanorod sample as observed in XRD spectra causes the Raman spectra to exhibit a little red shift and widening compared to those of nanospheres as shown in Fig.…”